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Summary

Here are The Prince and the most important Discourses, newly translated into spare, vivid English by one of the most gifted historians of his generation. Why a new translation? "Machiavelli was never the dull, worthy, pedantic author who appears in the pages of other translations", says David Wootton in his Introduction. "In the pages that follow I have done my best to let him speak in his own voice." (And indeed, Wootton's Machiavelli literally does so when the occasion demands: Renderings of that most problematic of words, virtý, are in each instance followed by the Italian). Notes, a map, and an altogether remarkable Introduction, no less authoritative for being grippingly readable, help make this edition an ideal first encounter with Machiavelli for any student of history and political theory.

Table of Contents

Introduction

xi

Further Reading

xlv

Map

xlviii

Letter to Vettori, 10 December 1513

1

(4)

THE PRINCE

5

(77)

Dedication

5

(1)

How many types of principality are there? And how are they acquired?

6

(1)

On hereditary principalities.

6

(1)

On mixed principalities.

7

(7)

Why the kingdom of Darius, which Alexander occupied, did not rebel against his successors after Alexander's death.

14

(3)

How you should govern cities or kingdoms that, before you acquired them, lived under their own laws.

17

(1)

About new kingdoms acquired with one's own armies and one's own skill [virtu].

18

(3)

About new principalities that are acquired with the forces of other and with good luck.

21

(6)

Of those who come to power through wicked actions.

27

(4)

Of the citizen-ruler.

31

(3)

How one should measure the strength of a ruler.

34

(1)

About ecclesiastical states.

35

(3)

How many types of army are there, and what opinion should one have of mercenary soldiers?

38

(4)

About auxiliary troops, native troops, and composite armies.

42

(3)

What a ruler should do as regards the militia.

45

(2)

About those factors that cause men, and especially rulers; to be praised or censured.

47

(2)

On generosity and parsimony.

49

(2)

About cruelty and compassion; and about whether it is better to be loved than feared, or the reverse.

51

(2)

How far rulers are to keep their word.

53

(3)

How one should avoid hatred and contempt.

56

(7)

Whether the building of fortresses (and many other things rulers regularly do) is useful or not.

63

(4)

What a ruler should do in order to acquire a reputation.

67

(3)

About those whom rulers employ as advisers.

70

(1)

How sycophants are to be avoided.

71

(2)

Why the rulers of Italy have lost their states.

73

(1)

How much fortune can achieve in human affairs, and how it is to be resisted.

74

(3)

Exhortation to seize Italy and free her from the barbarians.

77

(5)

Selections from the discourses

81

(1)

To Zanobi Buondelmonti and Cosimo Rucellai

81

(1)

Book One

82

(76)

Preface

82

(2)

On the universal origins of any city whatever, and on how Rome began.

84

(3)

On the different types of republic that exist, and on how to categorize the Roman republic.

87

(5)

On the circumstances under which the tribunes of the people came to be established in Rome, a development that made the constitution nearly perfect.

92

(1)

On the tensions between the populace and the Roman senate, which made that republic free and powerful.

93

(2)

On whether the protection of liberty is best entrusted to the populace or to the elite, and on whether those who want to acquire power or those who want to maintain it are most likely to riot.

95

(2)

On whether it would have been possible to give Rome a constitution that would have prevented conflict between the populace and the senate.

97

(5)

On how essential it is that there should be a right of public accusation in a republic if it is to retain its freedom.

102

(3)

On how slander is just as damaging to a republic as public accusations are beneficial.

105

(2)

On how it is necessary to act alone if you want to draw up the consitution for a new republic from scratch, or reform an old one by completely changing its established laws.

107

(3)

On how, just as the founders of a republic or a kingdom deserve praise, so the founders of a tyranny should be held in contempt.

110

(3)

On the religion of the Romans.

113

(3)

On how important it is to give due weight to religion, and on how Italy, having been deprived of faith by the Church of Rome, has been ruined as a consequence.

116

(3)

On how the Romans used religion to recorganize their city, to carry out their enterprises, and to put a stop to internal dissension.

119

(2)

On how a people who have been accustomed to being ruled by one man, if by some chance they become free, have difficulty in holding on to their liberty.

121

(3)

On how a corrupt people who come to be free can only hold on to their freedom with the greatest of difficulty.

124

(2)

On the way to preserve political freedom in a corrupt but free city; or to establish it in a corrupt and unfree city.

126

(3)

On how much those rulers and republics that do not have their own armies deserve to be criticized.

129

(2)

On how a new ruler, in a city or territory over which he has gained control, should make everything new.

131

(1)

On how it is only on very rare occasions that men know how to be either completely bad or completely good.

132

(1)

On whether ingratitude is more characteristic of a people or a ruler.

133

(3)

On how a republic or a ruler should not postpone treating its subjects well until the government's time of need.

136

(1)

On how dictatorships were beneficial, not harmful, for the Roman republic; and on how powers that are seized from the hands of the citizens against their will are destructive of political freedom, but those they freely vote to give up are not.

137

(2)

On how easy it is for men to be corrupted.

139

(1)

On how those who fight for their own glory make good and faithful soldiers.

139

(1)

On how men advance from one aspiration to another. At first they want only to defend themselvesl later, they want to attack others.

140

(2)

On how the cities that are free at the time of their foundatin, as Rome was, havce difficulty in determining which laws will make it possible for them to preserve their freedom, consequently, it is almost impossible for those cities that are under someone ele's authority at the very begining to establish the right laws.

142

(2)

On how a singal committee or official ought not to be able to bring the govenment of the city to a halt.

144

(1)

On how the populace often seeks its own ruin, taken in by some plan with a misleading appearance of being in its interests; and on how great hopes and cheerful promises easily influence it.

145

(4)

On the ability of a senior statesman to restrain an agitated mob.

149

(1)

On how easy it is to reach decisions in cities where the multitude is not corrupt; and on how it is impossible to establish one-man rule where there is social equality; and on how it is impossible to establish a republic where there is inequality.

150

(4)

On how the masses are wiser and more loyal than any monarch.

154

(4)

Book Two

158

(31)

Preface

158

(3)

On whether skill [virtu] or good fortune was a more significant factor in the Roman's acquisition of an empire.

161

(4)

On the peoples the Romans had to fight against, and on their determination in defending their liberty.

165

(6)

On how Rome became a great city by ruining the cities round about and by allowing foreigners easy access to her privileges.

171

(1)

On how weak states always have trouble making up their minds, and on how delays in decision making are always dangerous.

172

(3)

On how soldiers in our day do not come up to the standards of classical times.

175

(3)

On how republics that acquire new territory do themselves much more harm than good, unless they have good institutions and a Roman efficiency [virtu].

178

(4)

On the risks a ruler or a republic runs by using auxiliary or mercenary troops.

182

(2)

On how wise prince and republics will be satisfied with winning; for those who want more usually lose.

184

(3)

On how fortune blinds men's minds when she does not want them to thwart her plans.

187

(2)

Book Three

189

(29)

On how, if you want a [political or religious] movement or a state to survive for lony you must repeatedly bring it back to its founding principles.

189

(5)

On how it is necessary, if one wants to preserve liberty when it has been newly won, to kill the sons of Brutus.

194

(1)

On why it happens that some revolutions, when liberty is replaced by servitude, or servitude by liberty, are bloodless, while other are bloody.

195

(1)

On how, if you want to overthrow a republic, you ought to take account of its inhabitants.

196

(2)

On how, you have change with the times, if you want always to have good fortune.

198

(2)

On how the harshness of Manlius Torquatus and the gentleness of Valerius Corvinus won the same amount of glory for them both.

200

(4)

On how rulers are responsible for the failings of their subjects.

204

(1)

On how a citizen who wants to use his persona authority to do some good deed in his republic must first overcome other people's jealousy; and on how, when the enemy attack, one should organize a city's defense.

205

(3)

On how strong republic and fine men sustain the same outlook, no matter what happens, and never lose their dignity.

208

(4)

On the role of rumor, word of mouth, and public opinion in deciding whether the people begin to support a particular citizen; and on whether the people make wiser appointments to goverment offices thatn individual rullers do.

212

(3)

On how one should defend one's homeland whether one wins shame or glory by it; one should employ whatever defense will work.

215

(1)

On how the men who are born in a particular region scarcely change in character over the course of centuries.